1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid container, a liquid container set, and an ink jet recording apparatus.
2. Related Art
In general, inks in which dispersed particles of pigments or the like are uniformly dispersed and mixed in a solvent are widely used as inks used in ink jet recording apparatuses. In such inks, when left to stand for a long period of time, there is a tendency for the dispersed particles with a high density (heavy) in comparison with the solvent to be deposited. The deposition of the dispersed particles leads to a decrease in recording quality, such as ejection defects or the like due to color unevenness during recording or ink clogging in the recording apparatus. Therefore, for example, in a case of a recording apparatus using an ink cartridge as the liquid container, in order to re-disperse the deposited dispersed particles in the inner portion of the ink cartridge, methods such as shaking the ink cartridge and stirring the ink have been adopted. However, in a sealed type ink cartridge which does not include an air layer in the inner portion, there are problems in that ink convection does not easily occur, and it is not possible to effectively perform stirring. In relation to this, various ink stirring methods and techniques providing a stirring mechanism have been proposed. For example, in JP-A-2006-1240, there is proposed a technique of performing stirring by inserting a stirring ball inside the ink cartridge.
However, with the above-described technique of performing stirring by inserting a stirring ball inside the ink cartridge, in order to be able to effectively perform stirring in a short time by moving the stirring ball around thoroughly, there is a need to insert a sufficient number of stirring balls or to insert stirring balls having a sufficient size and weight. As a result, in particular, in a case where the ink cartridge is large, the volume occupied by the stirring balls, the weight, the necessary costs, and the like cannot be ignored. In other words, in the techniques of the related art, since there was a need to provide incidental objects which are not directly related to recording in the inner portion of the ink cartridge, there was a problem in that the reduction of recording costs was prevented.